1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pool assembly designed and structured to be supportingly positioned in a body of water and be substantially portable by means of the collapsible nature of the liner or liquid container and its interconnection to a floating dock which serves as access to the interior of the liner and the water or liquid maintained therein in segregated relation to the surrounding supportive body of water.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Swimming pools primarily used for recreational and in certain instances health purposes have, of course, been known and used by mankind for literally hundreds of years. With the advent of modern society and its accompanying affluence, the popularity of swimming pools and like structures have increased significantly during the 20th century. Primarily such pool structures have taken the form of permanent installation adapted for both public and residential use. Particularly in the area of residential application swimming pools are relatively common in environments which allow their use for primarily recreational purposes over many months of the year.
However, while such permanent pool structure installations have become more popular in recent years, their cost of installation has increased to the point where their availability to the average person is becoming increasingly questioned.
In an effort to overcome such high costs, the swimming pool industry has developed "portable" type structures which are capable of being installed on land but which have obvious drawbacks and limitations relating to their durability and operative life. Such limitations have obviously affected their desirability which in turn has resulted in searching by the consuming public for a swimming pool structure which is functionally more desirable than static, "on land" portable swimming pool structures but yet less expensive than permanent installations.
Accordingly, attempts have been made to fill this void by members of the commercial swimming pool industry. Such attempts have resulted in the basic conception of "floating pools" which have distinctive qualities from the "on land" portable pool assemblies. More specifically, such "floating pools" are specifically designed and maintained to be supported within a "natural or man-made body of water" such as a lake, river, stream, reservoir, etc.
Such "floating pool assemblies" are represented in the prior art by the patent to Salisbury, U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,472.
While such a prior art structure is certainly operable and desirable for certain specific applications, the structural concept of the floating pool assembly has become desirable to the point of innovating new structural designs and concepts which are now more versatile. These new and more desirable designs lend themself to a wide variety of applications generally not serviceable by the various prior art pool assemblies which are now commercially available. Accordingly, there is seen a need in the swimming pool industry for a portable pool assembly which is specifically designed for operation within a larger, either natural or man-made body of water such as a lake, reservoir, river, etc. Such structure should be capable of being relatively portable so as to facilitate removal to various locations but yet have the structural integrity to provide the operational characteristics generally similar to a permanent pool installations. Such design characteristics should include adequate size, depth and support to provide the capabilities of handling a plurality of people. Such plurality of people will be capable of providing support on the deck and within the liquid maintained in segregated relation to the supportive body of water in which the floating pool assembly is maintained.
In addition, the floating pool structure of the present invention should be capable of being adapted to a "semi-permanent" installation wherein it is intended to maintain the subject assembly in one location for a relatively long period of time. Concurrently such pool assembly should be capable of being transported relatively easily to various locations including extremely temporary sites such as when camping or when traveling relatively long distances.